Will GreenwaldAnheuser-Busch Office Bud-E FridgeIf your office is located in Chicago, Los Angeles, or New York, the Wi-Fi-connected, drink-tracking Office Bud-E beer fridge is a fun way to make sure you're always ready for happy hour.

Anheuser-Busch Office Bud-E Fridge

Tracks how many beers are on each shelf. Holds up to 180 bottles or cans.

Cons

Limited availability. Web portal is locked to Minibar's delivery service and Anheuser-Busch products.

Bottom Line

If your office is located in Chicago, Los Angeles, or New York, the Wi-Fi-connected, drink-tracking Office Bud-E beer fridge is a fun way to make sure you're always ready for happy hour.

Good workplaces offer two things to their employees, at minimum: health insurance and a beer fridge. Anheuser-Busch wants to make keeping that beer fridge stocked a bit easier with the Office Bud-E. It's a Wi-Fi-connected smart beverage refrigerator with a slim profile and a generous capacity, that lets you know by email or through the Web when your office is running low on suds. It can even automatically prepare your next beer order on Minibar, so that a restock is only a click away.

Small Batch

You can't actually buy the Office Bud-E. Instead, you lease it from Anheuser-Busch. It's currently only available to offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City; the lease is free in Chicago and New York, and $181.72 yearly in Los Angeles.

Because of its very limited availability and focus on serving offices, we are not formally scoring the Office Bud-E as a consumer product. There's a smaller, consumer-ready Bud-E available for $299.99, but you can only purchase it in California.

If you want to keep track of what's in your refrigerator at home, there are multiple smart fridges available with full suites of connected features (and very high prices).

Design

The Office Bud-E is a tall, slim refrigerator with a large window on its door to let you see the available beverages inside. It measures 83.0 by 25.8 by 28.0 inches (HWD) and weighs 298 pounds, with a prominent base and top section framing the door. It's available in one of six styles, featuring branded art from Bud Light, Golden Road, Goose Island, Shock Top, and Six Point.

The top of the fridge holds a small alphanumeric LED display in the right corner, near the door. The readout shows the current temperature inside, along with connectivity options. Two buttons under it let you connect the refrigerator to your Wi-Fi network using the free companion app, or reset the Wi-Fi information. A sensor to the right of the display registers Wi-Fi information through a series of flashes sent through the mobile app.

Instead of a set of wire shelves like most beverage fridges, the Office Bud-E's main compartment is built more like a vending machine. It has five shelves for different beverages, each with six spring-loaded slots for up to six bottles or cans. The slots can hold anything from a 12-ounce can to a 20-ounce glass bottle. The spring-loaded pushers behind the slots are connected to the fridge's various sensors to keep track of the number of drinks available. You can assign a different beer to each of the five shelves. In total, the Office Bud-E can hold up to 180 bottles and/or cans.

Each drink slot is lit by white LEDs. They're bright enough to let you clearly see what beer is available, but not so bright that they're distracting. Blue and white LED lighting also run along the edges of the window on the fridge's door. Those lights are brighter, and could get distracting during office hours, but they can be manually turned off by flipping a switch just above the door.

Web Portal and Minibar

To connect the fridge to your Wi-Fi network, you need to download the free Office Bud-E app for Android and iOS. (This is a different app from the regular Bud-E app.) The app walks you through connecting the fridge to your network, registering an Office Bud-E account, and registering the fridge to that account. The app is only used for setup; everything else is done through the Web portal.

Once you've set things up through the app, you need to go to the Office Bud-E Web portal to configure the fridge's beer selection, arrange delivery, and monitor how much beer you have. Anheuser-Busch has teamed with Minibar to enable fairly seamless delivery over the Web when your stock runs low.

The good news is that Minibar integration makes ordering beer convenient. The bad news is that Minibar has some pretty high prices (in Manhattan, a 24-pack of Bud Light is $28, and a 24-pack of Stella Artois is $60), and the selection through the Office Bud-E Web portal is limited to Anheuser-Busch brands (though you can also order some Coca-Cola products through the portal if you want to stock the fridge with soft drinks).

Beer Tracking

The Web portal lets you know how many beers are left on each shelf in the fridge. The refrigerator uses spring-loaded pushers on the shelves to count the beers in each slot. When you fill the fridge with beer, the pushers go back and the portal lets you know that you're fully stocked. When you take a beer out, the pusher moves forward, telling the fridge to upload an updated number for that shelf.

The beer count was accurate and updated quickly, showing the correct number on the Web portal within minutes of removing a beer. You don't need to start with fully stocked shelves, either; it also registered when I moved beers from one shelf to another, even when it was just a single bottle. The fridge doesn't have any way to identify each beer outside of what you set through the Web portal; the Bud Light I moved to the Boddington's shelf simply registered as a Boddington's.

When the Office Bud-E detects that there's enough room on a shelf for another case of beer, the Web portal will generate a Minibar order for you to confirm the next time you log in. It lets you restock the fridge quickly and easily, since Minibar offers hourly delivery.

Is This Bud For You?

If you manage an office in Chicago, Los Angeles, or New York, the Office Bud-E is a convenient smart appliance that lets you easily keep track of how many beers you have left (and, through that, just how fast they're being consumed). On one hand, you can get the fridge leased for free or close to free. On the other hand, you're limited to Anheuser-Busch products and Minibar pricing as part of the deal. It's a nice idea, but we'd like to see a consumer model you can buy and stock however you'd like, and that version is currently only available in California in mini fridge form.

Will Greenwald has been covering consumer technology for a decade, and has served on the editorial staffs of CNET.com, Sound & Vision, and Maximum PC. His work and analysis has been seen in GamePro, Tested.com, Geek.com, and several other publications. He currently covers consumer electronics in the PC Labs as the in-house home entertainment expert, reviewing TVs, media hubs, speakers, headphones, and gaming accessories. Will is also an ISF Level II-certified TV calibrator, which ensures the thoroughness and accuracy of all PCMag TV reviews....
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